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Use the plus sign and arrows on the upper left to scroll and zoom in to view Barangay Kili-kili, Lanao del Sur

MANILA, Philippines A suspected drug pusher was killed in a buy-bust operation of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the military in Lanao del Sur Monday morning.

The suspect, who was only identified as Mike, was shot dead by PDEA agents and members of the Charlie Company of the Armys 8th Infantry Battalion after he fired shots at them in Barangay Kili-kili, Wao town at around 10 am

It was not specified if the barangay was Kili-kili East or Kili-kili West.

Mikes companions Baulo Untawar and Tochi Cagas were injured in the exchange of fire that lasted for about 15 minutes.

Authorities also arrested Mikes companions, identified as Minda Untawar, Khadafi Nimbalauag Macarambon and Bucari Abubacar. Another suspect identified as Alinor Macainas, meanwhile, eluded arrest.

Anti-illegal drug agents seized 8 sachets of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) and a 9 millimeter pistol from the suspects.

PDEA Director Jose Gutierrez said the anti-illegal drug agents who conducted the operation were lucky to have escaped unharmed, considering the presence of private armed groups in the area.

We are fortunate that we did not have any casualties on our side, Gutierrez said, in a statement.

Meanwhile, 34-year-old Rolly Sarino was arrested Monday evening in Barangay Macabalan, Cagayan de Oro City for possessing 2 packs of dried marijuana and a sachet of shabu.

Authorities suspect he was supposed to sell the drugs to some students and tricycle drivers in the area.

The PDEA said in 2011, it neutralized 3 shabu tiangges and 19 drug dens in Cotabato, Maguindanao, and Marawi. with a report from Lorenzo Luzon, ABS-CBN News Northern Mindanao

Tags: Companions

Dick and Kay Wilske posed with their faithful companions, Millie and Molly, at their Ideal Township home. Dick was chosen as the 2011 Pequot Lakes-Breezy Point Citizen of the Year.

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Dubai: Its 7.15am on a Sunday morning and Malu, 50, has reported to Dubai Hospital. A breast cancer patient under palliative care, she is scheduled for her eighth cycle of chemotherapy, her 15th session so far. She has a long day ahead but she is all smiles. Its only because of them, she says, pointing to two women flanking her.

Unlikely companions both, Minnie Calleja, a fellow Filipina and Suzanne Kazan, a Swiss housewife, are there – quite literally – for Malu. Since last June, theyve been accompanying her on her every visit to the hospital. Its a small gesture but one that means a lot to the patient.

A single mother who works as a nail technician at a Dubai spa, Malu said her children, 30 and 29, live in the Philippines. I have no family here except for a working niece. Sometimes I wonder how I managed before Minnie and Suzanne came into my life.

Thats precisely the gap that the duo hoped they would fill when they signed up as volunteers for Care for Cancer. It is a project initiated by Lola Lopez of the non-profit Volunteer in Dubai and Malu is the first of many patients they are aiming to reach out to.

Tags: Companions

One day this fall, kindergartner Jena Mohammed came home from Dillard Street Elementary School and excitedly told her mother about Mr. Newton.

Mr. Newton, Jenas mother discovered, is a dog. The laid-back Golden Retriever/Yellow Labrador mix visits Jenas school and four others to help physical education teacher Steve Miller connect with special education students.

Newton IV, or Mr. Newton, as the kids and Miller call him, is the only trained dog working in Orange County Public Schools this year. Newton was provided free by the Orlando branch of Canine Companions for Independence a nonprofit that trains dogs for roles including helping individuals and visiting schools and hospitals.

Tags: Companions

By KELLEY MOHR

Staff Writer

KILLBUCK — Everyone knows a dog is mans best friend. But for one local man, a dog is much more.

Killbuck resident Mel Parks, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, recently became the owner of Baila, a female black Labrador-golden retriever mix, as part of the Canine Companions for Independence program, a nonprofit organization that seeks to enhance the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained service dogs.

I have severe fatigue issues and balance concerns and I have more and more trouble all the time in motivation to get around. Im still able to walk, I do have a wheelchair, although Im trying to refuse using it, but there are times that I have to, said Parks, who is adapting to the chronic and sometimes disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system.

Nobody ever expects to get sick in their life. I was a hardworking 100 percent type A personality and now Im learning to do things differently, he said.

In August, Parks received his free service dog after completing a two-week team training course at one of Canine Companions regional centers in Delaware, Ohio, during which he learned to use more than 40 commands to work with Baila effectively. After the session, Parks and Baila graduated and could start their lives together.

I received a wonderful gift and a beautiful black lab named Baila. She is awesome, she knows 42 separate commands and she executes them well, said Parks, adding the highly trained dog normally would cost up to $55,000.

Parks wife and daughters encouraged him to pursue the Canine Companions program and now Parks cant imagine a life without his faithful dog.

Baila and I just hit it off. She goes everywhere with me. As we speak Im sitting here and shes lying beside me, said Parks. Those big brown eyes look up at me and its like Are you ready? Can I help?

As a 24/7 partner, Baila is trained to perform tasks that have become difficult for Parks because of his balance and coordination issues. Baila, like all of Canine Companions service dogs, can turn on lights, pick up dropped keys, open doors, pull a wheelchair, push elevator buttons and even assist with business transactions by transferring money, receipts and packages.

She can carry objects, pick up phones, open the refrigerator door, help with dressing and undressing and even pick up a credit card off a concrete floor, said Parks.

Since bringing her home, Parks has taught Baila a new command in case of emergencies, training the dog to alert his wife when he says the command Go to Vicki.

And not only does Baila help from a physical standpoint, she provides an emotional lift as well, said Parks, calling his dog both a helper and a companion, one Parks quickly fell in love with.

Baila is just a beautiful black Labrador that has made a big change in my life, said Parks.

We had to pick out a song that most fitted us for the graduation ceremony and I picked out the 1965 Temptations hit My Girl. And thats exactly it. My wife said I went down the aisle again when I graduated with Baila.

Parks recommends the Canine Companions program to anyone with physical or developmental disabilities who wish to enhance the quality of their life.

The whole experience changed my outlook toward life and toward how people do things. My life without her would definitely not be the same, not just for the companionship but for the abilities and skill she has to help me save my energy, said Parks. Its a wonderful experience and theres not enough I can say about the organization Canines for Independence. Its a wonderful thing for people who really need it.

To find out more, visit www.cci.org or call 800-572-2275.

Reporter Kelley Mohr can be reached at 330-674-5676 or kmohr@the-daily-record.com.

Tags: Companions

The Companions in Grief support group, sponsored by Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice, meets from 10 to 11:30 am every third Monday of the month, in the Hobby Room (Peach and Horn Room) in the basement of Cumbernauld Village.

The next meeting will be Monday and is open to the public.

Grief comes in many forms, and support is offered to anyone.

During the absence of Cheryl Pickering, Michelle Shaheen will be the facilitator for Companions in Grief. Cheryl and Michelle are social workers for Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice.

Tags: Companions

It was Walt Disney who gave Snow White’s seven companions the
names we know today. But astronomers have named seven dwarfs in the
universe.

The largest astronomical dwarfs are dwarf galaxies, with only a
few billion stars (one percent of the Milky Way’s). They are either
spheres or slightly squashed spheres (“ellipticals”), and are found
in swarms around larger galaxies, which occasionally subsume them
in acts of galactic cannibalism.

Stars come in dwarf varieties as well. Our own sun, although
enormous compared to earth, is a stellar pipsqueak compared to the
largest of its kin, and is thus considered a dwarf among “main
sequence” (hydrogen-fusing) stars.

The smallest main sequence stars are so tiny that their gravity
barely crushes their cores enough to sustain hydrogen fusion. These
midget stars glow dull red, and are known as red dwarfs.

Smaller still are the brown dwarfs, midway between stars and
planets.

They’re only distinguished from giant planets by the fact that
their cores are just hot enough to sustain deuterium (“heavy
hydrogen”) fusion — they only glow in the infrared.

Even tinier are the earth-sized remnants of sun-like stars that
have exhausted their hydrogen, puffing away their atmospheres to
leave their cores exposed.

These white dwarfs possess a stellar mass glowing white-hot,
with temperatures as high as 300,000 degrees. Because they are so
dense, they cool slowly to become black dwarfs, although no white
dwarfs have had time to reach this stage over the universe’s 13.7
billion year existence.

The smallest — and most controversial — are dwarf planets, so
named after Pluto’s reclassification by the International
Astronomical Union in 2006. Dwarf planets are, simply put,
asteroids large enough that their gravity is strong enough to
render them spherical, but too weak to dominate their orbital zone
(like planets).

Next column: The brightest supernova since 1987.

Chris Anderson manages the College of Southern Idaho’s
Centennial Observatory in Twin Falls. He can be reached at 732-6663
or canderson@csi.edu.

Tags: Companions

A few days ago we received an emailed letter to the editor from a reader who says he was just passing through.

Judging from the tone and content of the letter, Im going to guess the guy is not a dog lover:

Editor: I hope Im not the only one who is annoyed over the elevation of mere dogs to the status of children. Dog day care, dog birthday parties, dog summer camp, dog play dates, a school bus that takes dogs to the dog park, enough already! This mass hysteria needs to stop. Dogs are just domesticated wolves, they are not children with a tail.

I did an Internet search on the name of the person who submitted the letter and found a similar one, in another newspaper in another state. So, its obvious this person is on a bit of a crusade. Motivated by what, I dont know. Maybe he, or someone close to him, was attacked by a dog. Its hard to speculate.

I love dogs. Ive been around them my whole life, and our family currently has living with us a 2-year-old black Lab named Sidney who, as I write this, is spending some time at a dog park with my wife and daughter. On Thursday, when our family was at the state fair, where dogs are not welcome, Sidney spent the day in Doggie Day Care, where she played with other dogs and had the time of her life.

Still, I think the letter writer has a point. We have taken the dog-as-companion or child thing a little too far.

I frequently see a couple at the grocery store with their dogs. They put the dogs in a stroller, wheel them to the store and one of the (humans) stands outside with the dogs while the other one goes in to buy cigarettes or a carton of milk.

Theres another person Ive seen who drives around town in his subcompact car with at least four dogs and what appears to be a cockatiel.

I know people who bring their dogs with them pretty much EVERYWHERE when theyre not at work.

And it always amazes me when we get far more comments from incredulous readers who are shocked by the reported abuse of dogs or cats than we do when we run news stories about children whove been abused.

Theres got to be a happy medium. Im by no means an expert, but I like to think of myself as a moderate when it comes to pet ownership. So for those of you who are still trying to figure out what is and isnt appropriate when it comes to the treatment of dogs, heres a brief primer:

Appropriate Doggie day care. When I was growing up, we boarded horses for people who lived in the city. The most neurotic and difficult animals to handle were those whose owners basically ignored them. Some of their owners went months without riding or even coming out to pet them.

Responsible pet owners make sure their critters get enough exercise and interaction with other animals the two- or four-legged kind. Sometimes that might mean hiring a dog walker or taking them to a place where people who love dogs can play and interact with them.

Inappropriate Doggie birthday parties. Some dogs are super-intelligent (I wouldnt include mine in this category), but not even the smartest ones know know the difference between a birthday and garbage-takeout day.

Appropriate Occasional doggie car rides. If they enjoy it, that is. (Mine loves car rides almost as much as she loves digging for treasure in the garbage container. It never gets old.)

Inappropriate Taking dogs wherever you go. I still occasionally see dogs at the farmers market, even though there are signs at the entrances informing people that dogs arent welcome, for health reasons. I also see them at outdoor concerts and cookouts and ballgames. Trust me on this, most dogs dont like this kind of noise and commotion.

Appropriate Occasional treats. Our dog gets sick when we feed her people food, so table scraps arent an option. But I do buy her (probably way too many) dog treats.

Inappropriate Cooking extra food, just so your dog can have some leftovers. Dont laugh, I know people who do this.

I hope this helps you dog owner newbies out there. Are dogs mans (or womans) best friend? Yes, depending on your perspective. Are they children with tails? Definitely not.

Greg Sellnow writes Tuesdays and Saturdays in the print edition. He invites feedback at sellnow@postbulletin.com.

Tags: Companions

What is rabies?

Rabies is a virus that affects the neurologic system of warm-blooded animals, including humans. This virus is typically spread via the saliva of infected animals through bite wounds or by saliva or infected tissue contacting open wounds and the oral cavity.

Symptoms can include abnormal behavior (including aggression or retreating/depression), excessive salivation, light sensitivity, progressive paralysis, and fear of water (for humans). Worldwide rabies kills more than 55,000 people yearly. In the United States, the number of human deaths from rabies is 2-3 per year, although 20,000-30,000 people in the US receive post-exposure rabies vaccination yearly. The majority of human cases of rabies in the world are due to contact with a rabid companion animal. Vaccination is the key component to controlling this fatal and untreatable disease.

Is rabies present in Colorado?

Yes. Bats and skunks are the primary carriers of rabies in Colorado. In Boulder County, rabid bats are the typical source of exposure. Raccoons and foxes are also sources of rabies in other states.

Is rabies treatable?

No. Once symptoms of the rabies virus are present, there is no treatment. The infected person or animal will die.

Is there a test for rabies?

Testing of brain tissue can be done on a deceased animal. There is no test for rabies that can be done on live animals

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(CBS) – Its National Dog Day! Can you believe it? Lets all take a moment to celebrate our canine companions. Dogs are moving on up, yall! Take a look at this pooch. No more backseat for this guy, no way. This dog is sitting in the front seat, like a boss.

Enjoy the view, doggy. Its your special day!

Tags: Companions